I have a question that is bothering me. I am right now 8 weeks pregnant with my third child. I have a two-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl that I breastfed each when they were babies up until 8 months old, and I believe that's how I gave them candida. My son would spit up constantly - I mean CONSTANTLY - and would have bad diaper rashes occasionally. My daughter was diagnosed with thrush when she was three months old. Now, I have had them both on the diet and products for about 10 months now. They still seem to be sensitive to certain foods and they both have eczema in certain places on their bodies, as well as funny little sandpaper rash-type bumps on their arms and legs that come and go. I am convinced that they have the candida problem also, and that I gave it to both of them through breastfeeding.

I still have a severe yeast problem on my nipples, and I don't think it will get better before this baby is born.

Their father, my husband, also has asthma and allergies, and I know that breastfeeding can reduce this risk in children.

Now with this baby, I am torn. I am a firm believer in breast milk as the best food for a baby, but I do not want this baby to grow up with the problems that my other two children have, if I can help it. I am wondering if it would be better if I didn't breastfeed this one, and gave him/her a lactose-free or organic commercial formula instead? If it meant that this baby wouldn't have a candida problem, I would be willing to do it.

Does anyone know if candida can be passed in utero from mom to baby? Because if this were the case, the baby may well get a candida infection anyways.

Any ideas are appreciated. The doctors I have contact with here in Iowa aren't familiar with CRC and don't help me with this decision.

Hi Bloom--

I'm sorry I don't have experience in this area and so can't offer you any advice of my own...I just wondered if maybe a doctor out of state would be willing to do a phone consultation with you to offer you some advice and options in this area...? It may be worth looking into.

I hope someone else will chime in here and offer their personal experience, if any, with this. It can be so difficult when you are trying to do the right thing for your baby.

Tarilee will be back on Tuesday to post her response as well...

Take care,

Ashley

Hey, that's a good idea. I hadn't thought of the phone consultation thing. I wonder if you can do that . . .

Anyways, thanks for your prompt responses. They're much appreciated!

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this subject?

YES! I do. I have 2 little boys. The older one is going to be four the beginning of February and the younger one is two. I had to have antibiotics for group B strep with both of them. I think this is when my candida first became drastically worse.
I breastfed the older one for nine months and then quit when I found out I was expecting the next one. The older one always suffered from very bad colic and diaper rash whenever I quit eating copious amounts of plain yogurt with every meal or taking LOTS of probiotic. He was always less strong and caught about every bug that came around like "most" children do.
I had a very bad vaginal infection throughout most of pregnancy number two. I then had another round of antibiotics around the time of his birth. I immediately began large doses of probiotics and continued them in some form or another until this day. I started on oral nystatin powder when he was one and found myself stuck in one health crises simce then.
I am now on W/A phase 3 antifungal, DDS probiotic, digestive enzymes, a little milk thistle and some vitamins. My candida has greatly improved, though my liver is still very slow due to the nystatin and toxin overloads, I am still breastfeeding my two year old some and he is still very healthy. If he doesn't get probiotic (and possibly antifungal?)from me and in powder form he gets a rash and thrush, so I know he is not as healthy as he could be, but he has only taken medication for fever a very few times in his entire life and is rarely sick. He has less candida problems then the older one and I had worse candida since him then what I had with the older one. So I think they get more good than bad through the breastmilk, if the mom eats well. My nutritional consultant said that the Bifidus(?) strain of probiotic is only given to babies as they pass through the birthcanal... I don't know if this is one of the reasons why mom's that have to take antibiotics tend to have babies with candida or not but I imagine it also kills off the babies good bacteria in utero. I don't know a lot on this subject other than personal experience.

searching

Hi Bloom,

I'm so happy that you are taking great care and putting so much thought into how to create the healthiest life for your baby possible. There are better people to ask this question about the transmission of yeast to the baby than myself I'm certain but I'm not sure who. You'd want a naturopath specializing in obstetrics and chronic yeast issues/environmental illness I would think and the phone consult is an excellent idea. Do you have any naturopaths in your area or even out of your area that you know of in this field?

TLC

I, too, believe that my daugther (18 mos) and I got the yeast problem from having all the antibiotics pumped into us during labor because I was group B strep positive. I just figured this all out about a month ago, and I'm trying to work my way through the diet, etc.

Like "Searching" said, babies' guts are colonized with the breastmilk we provide them. So I really truly believe they receive more good than harm even if you do have the yeast problem. Scientists can't even determine most of the ingredients in breastmilk, so there is no way they can create a formula that can provide your baby with all the good things the BM does. You may be able to get more info on a breastfeeding website. In fact, I will post something on kellymom.com forums (I hope I'm allowed to say that) and will get back to you!

Oh, good information! Thank you for your feedback! My gut is that breast milk is the best for them, especially given their seeming predisposition to allergies. I would hate to try my baby on formula, only to find out too late that he/she is allergic to formula! I've seen that happen to other people's kids before - by the time they figure it out, it's too late to start breastfeeding!

I had another thought - Is there some way that I can eliminate the candida in my breast milk by pumping it and perhaps boiling it or sterilizing it in some way? I know that this would kill the good stuff in the breast milk, too, but if it's between sterile breast milk and sterile formula that doesn't have any of the good stuff in it anyways . . . seems like a no-brainer!

Or perhaps, I am currently taking this Paradophilus probiotic that is supposed to be so strong that they used it to clarify Hurricane Katrina water from New Orleans - just a couple of drops added to a glass of water, and all of the contaminants in the water were eliminated within a couple of days! Does anyone think that something like this may work?

Thanks for any and all feedback, by the way!

Bridget

Hi Bridget,

I'm curious about the product you describe and wonder if it was in fact clinically tested and if it kills good bacteria as well as bad. I've never heard of it but am interested in knowing more.

There are probiotics for infants available in health food stores. This may be worth checking into. And no, though I understand where you're coming from, I don't think for a minute that you can change your breastmilk without altering it therapeutic components and digestability. It's important for you to visualize your breastmilk as the juice of LIFE, full of vitality and healing energy to start your baby off right. If you do this all the time, especially while feeding, it will make a big difference in how much benefit your baby can get from natural feeding.

Take good care,

TLC

You know, Tarilee, I've been thinking a lot about what you have said, and I think that maybe you're right. It just doesn't feel right to me to not breastfeed at all because I know there are so many benefits, even if I may be giving my baby candida.

And I know so much more about candida now than I did when I had my last child - maybe if I stick to my diet enough along with using probiotics, this baby won't get candida so badly.

And you know what else I was thinking - maybe my children have such problems with allergies because I didn't breastfeed them long enough! I stopped with my son at 9 months, and my daughter at 8 months, although I had been supplementing with formula for a month or two before I stopped completely.

Thanks for helping me to think about it in a different way! I feel so much better about it now!

Hi BloomMommy,
I've been recently reading more about this subject because my husband and I may start trying soon. I'm so excited that I am finally healthy enough to try.

I do agree with you about the benefits of breast feeding.

The baby basically has no bacteria in the gut until he/she passes through the birth canal. The bacteria in the mothers vaginal fluid is very similar to the bacteria in her gut. So the baby scoops up a small bit of the vaginal fluid in the bottom lip while coming out of the birth canal. Swallows it, and this is the first bit of bacteria that gets into the infants' gut. It makes sense that the baby would also get yeast if the mother has a yeast infection.
Here is an article that talks about probiotics taken during pregnancy reducing eczema in children.
http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/articles/472/472_371onlineonly34.html

I was actually thinking of buying a probiotic powder because it has B Infantis in it (B. Longum, B. Lactis, B. Bifidum, B. Infantis). I am currently using a 6 blend powder from the same company, Custom Probiotics. They will also custom blend a powder with what ever a doctor recommends would be best for you. They don't currently have a blend specifically for pregnancy.

chigirl

Hi Bloom,

I'd keep in mind as well that your baby came out of you (made by your body) and I'm not sure how this works but I wouldn't be surprised if that will result in some systemic candida challenges regardless of breastfeeding or not...?

TLC

Good, good information! I didn't know a lot of that stuff!

Nice to meet you, chigirl, and the best of luck with your trying! It's so much fun to try to get pregnant! At least, if you can be patient enough to know that sometimes it doesn't always happen right away. I know it was difficult for me to try for 6 months before conceiving - I felt like my biological clock was ticking, and it was driving me nuts! Anyways, try and enjoy this time!

I just had a question about the probiotic B Infantis. Is this a specific probiotic strain that babies need? I have my probiotic that I use, and I was just planning on maybe using some of that, but I know it doesn't have that particular strain. I don't know anything about it, I guess.

Thanks for the link to the article. Very interesting!

And yes, Tarilee, I think you may be right about your children possibly inheriting some sort of inborn tendency towards developing candida problems, just with the composition of your body system maybe. I have suspected that.

The idea of inheriting tendency is one thing for sure. My thought was that they may actually inherit some yeast if you have systemic yeast. However the mother's body does protect the baby from somethings, not sure about yeast. Most Euro North American babies are born with over two hundred detectable toxic chemicals in their bodies these days though, the yeast and related toxins may also be an issue.

Apparently the b infantis is special for babies. I'd use an infant formula up until age two.

Take care,

TLC